Construction of fish-meal plants



Feb. 24, 1931. H. s. RowToN E1' AL CONSTRUCTION OF FISH MEAL PLANTS Filedv April 22, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l Feb. 24, 1931.

CONSTRUCTION OF FISH MEAL PLANTS H. S. ROWTON ET AL Filed AprilV 22, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 horizontally one above another,

inders.

plant. In consequence .thereo 35 or on 'sea-going vessel.

For convemence of construction 1t has '.40 sections secured together and to e shaft lbearings secured to M end connections.

' Patented FebrV 24, 193B.4

f STANLEY aowTon, or ABERDEEN,

SCOTLAND, Ann voLKMAn WALTER. HNIG,

or nnnsnnm GE- L;

coNsTnUcTIoN or FISH-MEAL rLANTs Application ledfnpril 22, 1929, Serial No. 357250f1andvin Great Britain April 26, 1928.

This invention relates to apparatus for drying or treating iish, fish oiial and other fish materials in the production of fish powder or iish meal and more particularly to 5 continuously-operating ,ish'metal' plants of the kind comprising a plurality of tubular dryingl chambers or cylindersparallel with one another and connected end to end in se-V parallel and preferably arranged the drying chambers being fitted with steam or other ries or in heating jackets and with agitating or agi-'- tating and conveying apparatus by shafting extending centrally throughthe drying cylln such sh meal plants, the drying cylinders are fre uently of considerable length and vary in diameter from perhaps 15 inches upwards according to the ca acity of the they are extremely heavy to transport, require special transport facilities, and are very` diiiicult to A erect owing to their great size and wei htf' Y It has been foundcommerciallyvery niicult and in" some cases impossible to install "such ish meal plants in fishing vessel, such as trawlers, whalers and the hke, owing to the structural alterationsinvolved in getting the plant into the vessel into position for erection.

It .is thei'efore one of the objects of the present invention to construct a fish meal plant of the kind described which can be easily transported and erected either on land been .proposed to makethe jacketed drying chambers in two sections joined by a flanged joint and to make the end connect'ons intwo e ends of the drying cylinders by flanged joints whilst paddle shafts which are contmuouscfrom end of the drying cylinders are supported 1n It is also lmown'to-build up a. long single steamjacketed drying cylinder in' sections l andt to make the paddle shaft two halves 'connected by a central coupling.

. -@i0 The present invention relates to the conthe sides "of the struction of lish meal plant of the kind described in sections and consists in making the tubular drying or other chambers or cylinders in which the fish material is treated, together with the steam jackets in sections of a convenient length for transport and erection or assembly and adapted to be bolted or otherwise detachably end to end, each section of jacketed drying chamber being provided' with a central shaft section fitted withagitating or agitating and conveying devices, said shaft sectionsv corra spending to the length of each jacketed drying chamber (section and being adapted to be coupled together by suitable couplings.

The end sections of the drying chambers \may be constructed complete with shaft'bearings as an integral vunit therewith to receive the ends of the shaft of the agitating or conveying apparatus, whilst the intermediate section or sections -of the drying chambers may QQusist of plain tubes ianged at both the ianges of abutting sections may be bolted together to form a continuous drying chamber or combined drying chamber and steam jacket, The shafts'or axles of the agitating or conveying apparatus are made 'up of sections secured together by means lof flanged or other couplings to form a continu. ous shaft or'axle. c

Some of the apparent advantages of this` construction are that the s ections-can be standardized or made of uniform size and produced in quantities, the diiiculty of transport is largely eliminated, and the sections can be made of such a sizeas to enable them to be easily handled and erected and inf troduced into the fishingvessel or building coupled together ends-'With a steam jacket or jackets, so that without extensive structural alterations. "u

Moreover, the plant can be readily dismantled and-transferred -toany other fishing vessel or position. .,4

The sectional construction also enables the size of the plant to be readily suited to requirement-s by the addition to orl removaly fm the plant of any desired'number of sec# tions. f i o The steam jackets may extend' either comcham ers.

The sections may be built up as units each consisting of an inner tube or chamber and an outer steam jacket or jackets, so that the units may be assembled and bolted together end to end.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood, reference is hereinafter made to the accompanying explanatory drawings illustrating one type of fish meal plant'according to the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view through the apparatus, Fig. 2 is an end view thereof and Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view of a drying chamber taken in a horizontal plane.

Figs. 4 and 5 are detail views illustrating a modifiedconstruction of joint for the sections. A

The plant illustrated comprises a series of drying chamber sections 1 having end fianges 2 which are bolted or otherwise secured together to form a continuous drying chamber. Any number of such sections may be coupled together end to end. In Fig. 1 each drying chamber is shown composed of two such sections and the dr in chambers are connected at their ends y anges Sand 4 to end sections 5 which are constructed complete with shaft bearings 6 to receive the shaft 7 of the stirrers 8 `and worm conveyor 9. The shaft 7 is also made in two sections coupled together by a flanged coupling 10.

Each drying chamber section 1 is fitted with a steam jacket 11 and adjacent steam jackets may be connected by connecting pipes 12 as shown in Fig. 3, which shows a drying chamber composed of four intermediate sections 1 with steam inlet and outlet connections 13 and 14 respectively for supplying steam to the steam jackets 11. t

The fish material may befed -to the first dryin chamber through a feed hopper 15 likewise bolted by -means of aflanged joint 16 to the first end section 5. The branches 17 nections respectively, `but it is Fti) be understood that the invention is not limited to any specific mode of treatment of the fishY material in the drying cylinders, which may be effected with or without the use of steam, hot

air or a combination thereof circulated in` either or both directions or firstfinone direction and then in the opposite direction through any one or more of the drying chambers. The invention is also not limited to the specific means shown for agitating and conveying the material through the plant or to the parallel horizontal arrangement. of the drying chambers,pwhich may, if desired, be' arranged to incline discharge ends. to join the sections of the drying chambers together by the use of any other'form of coupling o her'than fianged bolted joints.

downwards towards their- Also it may be convenient steam jacket to the next.

It is to be understood that the sections 1 need/not necessarily be tubular as shown, nor need the steam jackets 11 necessarily extend wholly around the drying sections The drying chamber may, for instance, e provided with an upper or lower steam jacket or with a steam jacket on one or both sides.

The improved construction enables the plant to be erected, for example, transversely alongside the bulkhead of a vessel, so that' the plant occupies a minimum of space in the fore and aft direction.

Claims:

1. A fish meal plant includinga-tubular drying chamber, a heating jacket fitted vto said drying chamber, said jacketeddrying chamber being constructed in sections of a convenient length and detachably coupled together end to end, a central shaft section foreach section of j acketed drying chamber, said shaft sections corresponding to the length of each jacketed drying chamber section,couplings for coupling said shaft sections together, and agitating or agitating and conveying devices fitted to said shaft sections.

2. A sectional fish meal plant comprising a plurality of parallel tubular drying chambers, each of said drying chambers being built up of standardized sections coupled together and including a heatingjacket, a central shaft extendin through each drying chamber, said shafteing built up of standardized sections coupled together and uniform in size with the sections of the drying "chambers, agitating and conveying devices fitted upon said shafts, endsections connecting said drying chambers end to end in se ries and constructed to form bearings' for 1- said shafts, mechanism for rotating said shafts, a feed hopper for supplying material to the drying chambers, and hot Huid inlet and outlet connectionsy to said drying cham- Y bers for circulating hot fluid therethrough.

In test-imony whereof we affix our signatures. y

HAROLD STANLEY ROWTON. -VOLKMAR WALTER -I-INIG. 

